help

[Guest teeny]

[[color=blue]FONT=Times][font="Optima"][b] Ok, heres the thing. I'm not registered here.....I found this site the day before I got into a debate. I don't believe that it was luck.
I was talking to a protestant. (I am a proud Catholic!!!!) Anyway, we started discussing the Eucharist. This protestant, I'll call him "friend" had no idea what Catholics believe the Eucharist to be. He thought we worship a jewel or something like that. Weird huh? Anyway, I told him that we believed the Eucharist to be (and that it is) the body and blood of Christ. He found this crazy and unbelievable. He wanted proof. I gave him the spots in the bible where Jesus says, "This is my Body...." and "This is my Blood....." He said that Christ wasn't talking literally. I don't know how to prove to him that it is Christ, that the bread and wine really change into Christs body and blood. I need some help. I'm collecting bible verses and looking the Catechism, (but he probably wont believe the Catechism because he isn't Catholic) to get a pile of information in which I can defend my veiw.
He thinks it would be cannibolism if we were truly eating Jesus. Anyway, I want to help him to understand, but I don't want to mess it up. I was hoping you guys could give me some good arguments and some "proof". Thanks for all your help and God bless![/b][/color][/FONT][/font]

[Pontifex]

John 6:25-71

The Final Discourse. Ask your friend if jesus was not speaking literally then why did he allow those scandalized followers to leave after those very intense words, "...if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." (Jn 6:53)? If it where a metaphor, wouldn't he say, "Stop, let me explain." No, instead he turned to the twelve and said, "Do you want to leave me too?" (John 6:67) He was speaking literally. In fact the writer of this Gospel, St. John, the one closest to Jesus, changes his word for eat in verses 54-58. In Greek this word is Sarx and it means to gnaw. The word change in these verses emphasizes the reality of what Jesus is talking about.

At the Last Supper, not accounted by St. John, Jesus says, I have eagerly desired to eat this passover with you. Why was that? Because it was the gift of intimate union with his friends and all of humanity. This of course was completed on the cross. The one desire of Jesus Christ was to unify God with Humanity. The Eucharist is that food that gives us a taste of eternal life and feeds us on our journey to eternal life. It unifies us with Christ. It began at the Last Supper and was completed at the time of his death as Jesus exclaims, "It is finished." What is finished? All that is needed to unify humanity with God once again.

Lastly, the Eucharist is a mystery of presence, one that cannot be totally explained or figured out. I mean lets be honest, it was a divine intellect who thought of this. So, no it is not canibalism. We don't knaw on the bones of Jesus. He remains intact. The physical Jesus (Body, Blood, Soul and Divinty of Christ) are present under the elements of bread and wine. Our communion is a spiritual one that feeds all aspects of our being. When we receive the Eucharist we receive the consciousness of Christ.



Peace.